Lesley-Anne Cao's Amphibian Palm: Fabric Books Submerged in Water
Lesley-Anne Cao's ongoing series Amphibian palm (2024– ) features fabric books placed in water tanks, where wave-driven mechanisms turn their pages. The works explore water's contradictory nature—transparent yet visible, buoyant yet heavy, life-giving yet destructive. In For measuring the wind (2024), Cao embroidered the names of typhoons retired from the Philippine weather bureau's official list onto a submerged book, commemorating the devastation they caused. The embroidered names are unerasable, persisting like memory, returning through the element that once carried the storms. The series is featured in ArtAsiaPacific's New Currents.
Key facts
- Lesley-Anne Cao created the series Amphibian palm (2024– )
- The series involves fabric books placed in tanks of water
- Wave-driven mechanisms turn the pages of the books
- The works highlight water's contradictory qualities
- For measuring the wind (2024) is a specific work in the series
- The work features embroidered names of retired typhoons
- The typhoons were retired from the Philippine weather bureau's official list
- The names are embroidered onto a submerged book
Entities
Artists
- Lesley-Anne Cao
Institutions
- ArtAsiaPacific
- Philippine weather bureau